Loosely based on Jane Austen's Emma, this switches the setting
to 1995 Beverly Hills, where a peppy teenage high school student would rather shop at the mall than do her homework, but finds it comes naturally to be amongst the popular crowd at school,
playing matchmaker for her friends but finds it almost impossible to find a guy who loves her without thinking of her as a brainless Valley Girl.

A
fresh spin on a familiar story, with charming performances from its cast. It was the first, and amongst the best, of many films which modernised the plots of literature classics and set them
inside American high schools. Alicia Silverstone gives her finest screen performance here and the script also provides an opportunity to poke fun and satirise the fashion trends of the
time.